Inner Battle
by Yatsuan
Summary: Follows the lives of Sirius, Remus, James, Lily and more at Hogwarts during their sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. Their wizarding battles weren't the only ones they experienced. R/S, J/L, many others.


**Hello! First fanfiction here in ages, had to get a new account and everything... well, this is set in sixth year and hopefully shall have many, many chapters. The main pairings are Remus/Sirius and James/Lily, although there will be lots of little sub-pairings (Remus/Severus, Remus/OC, Sirius/OC etc.) SO please R&R! I've always wanted to make a long RLSB fic, so enjoy!**

**(This is basically the interlude before the plot really begins. Yes Peter isn't here, all shall be explained. D)**

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He seemed to be fighting some kind of inner battle - wringing his hands and staring at the ground in a sort of nervous excitement. Remus prompted him with a cough, having been standing waiting for over a minute now. Finally, James spoke. "Today... is the DAY."

Remus took one look at him, swiped out a book, and sat down. He should have known, really.

"Don't you see, Moony? Today is the day!" Remus read until the end of his sentence before looking back up at his friend again with a long-suffering expression.

"I'm sorry, James. I really am. But I have no idea what you're talking about. What's your plan today?" James had been staring at him vacantly, but at the prospect of explaining his masterpiece of an agenda he sprang into attention.

"This is the exact time Lily walks past here," he said, as if it were obvious. "Every morning." When Remus looked neither enthralled or gobsmacked, not even shocked (rather deadpan, actually), James let out a little cry of frustration. How could Remus not appreciate the amazing Plan? It was a most spectacular thing of much beauty, and - at this point James realised Remus had gone back to Shakespeare land and gave him up as a lost cause.

When Sirius arrived at the little tree near the Lake too, James wasted no time explaining the Plan to him either. His reaction was somewhat different.

"Prongs, Prongs, Prongs," he sighed, flopping to the ground next to an unassuming Mr. Lupin, with the dejected look of a puppy who'd been promised a walk but never got one. He really had been expecting something exciting when James had rushed into the dormitory that morning, yelling 'LAKE. FIVE MINUTES.' before bounding out again. But no, James was always the disappointer. He'd already received the same, 'you're late!' as Remus had. Late for what, he wondered? Lily wasn't even around. That made SO much sense. Not. "When are you going to give up on this girl? You should take a nice leaf out of my book. As I always say, my philosophy is -"

"Screw 'em, threw 'em?" James proferred. Remus tried very hard not to correct this abysmal grammar mistake.

"No, no, not that one. I was going to say, 'there's plenty of fish in the sea' but I guess that works too. Plus, I can recommend you! Louise Cook, she was good. Ravenclaws have some nice birds, ha ha - hey, you're not even listening!" Sure enough, James' attention had been directed at a tree, a dreamy look in his eye. "Hey, is this your new love of your life? Gone off flowers?"

"But... Lily is the best fish in the sea..." James trailed off softly. Clearly he had not been paying attention after that section of Sirius' monologue. Sirius ignored him and turned to Remus.

"What'cha readin'?" he asked in the sing-song voice he knew Sirius' hated, waving his hand in front of his face.

"'_Twelfth Night_'," Remus replied, ignoring the hand, trying to read around Sirius' fingers.

"I thought you were reading that one where those idiots killed eachother," Sirius muttered, ducking his head to read the cover.

"That was yesterday, Sirius," Remus answered. "And the title I think you'll find was '_Romeo and Juliet_'. And they didn't kill eachother. They killed themselves."

"Right little ray of sunshine that Shakespeare was then," Sirius said with a smirk.

"It was a comedic tragedy, of course there's not going to be much sunshine in it."

"Right, right," Sirius answered, not paying attention, watching a bird. Remus went back to his book.

"OH MY GOD!" James suddenly exclaimed, surprisingly girlishly. Both of them looked up, startled, and saw James staring in shock at a figure in the distance. Lily Evans. "Hide me, hide me!"

"I thought your plan was to make yourself seen?" Sirius said with another smirk. "Here she comes..."

Sure enough, Lily was definitely making her way towards them, reading the blurb of a book, which explained why she hadn't seen them yet. Remus thought privately that James was very lucky, for if she hadn't have been she would have fixed them with an icy glare and then choose a different direction.

All of them stared at her approaching, until finally she noticed them, about to settle herself under another tree (the one they were situated under was widely known as _their_ tree). Freezing, she looked at them all in turn, Remus looking up from his book, Sirius in the middle of plucking grass out of the ground and James looking uncomfortable and nervous.

"What?" she asked. They all jumped at the noise. Remus went back to his book again.

"H-hello, Evans," James greeted. She turned to him with a glare.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily asked with a pained expression, as if she dearly regretted asking. James plunged into his well-rehearsed speech.

"Just that -"

"What the hell!?"

At Sirius' voice, all of them turned to him in surprise, and then followed his gaze to a second approaching figure. And all of them knew who he was. Unfortunately. Black hair, shorter than Sirius', but at a distance he could easily have been mistaken for him, were it not for the change in gait. Regulus Black walked distinctly upright, rather than Sirius' confident lope.

"Hello, brother," he greeted, his feigned politeness ruined by his sneer.

"Get lost, Regulus," Sirius answered in what would be a bored voice, were it not for the obvious ferocity in it.

"Ooh, pardon me. Got up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"You're so lame."

"Not getting enough of the 'good stuff'?"

"...what the heck? You of all people should know that's never a problem..." he replied scornfully, with a smirk again. Regulus joined in with one of his own. Remus shivered. It was quite frightening how similar their behaviours were deep down.

"Yeah, _right_... hey, why don't you go warm up your friend over there?" he indicated to Remus' direction, who froze, startled. Regulus had never spoken to him before. "I hear you're good at that."

"What the hell are you talking about!? Just shut up!" Sirius snarled, on his feet now with his wand raised at his laughing brother.

"Aww, did I touch a nerve? Ha, look at your half-blood friend, he's not denying it, is he... haha..." At this point Regulus was cut off, Sirius' wand pressed against his throat. After the thread passed Regulus smirked and moved on, sneering at Remus, who was ignoring him as usual but reddening slightly at the attention, and reading very determinedly.

"Hey, Potter! How are you?"

James didn't answer. Lily hovered around her tree, appearing not to be able to decide what to do - clearly she wanted to leave, but Regulus' entry had made her want to hang around and watch. She looked at James sharply as he was spoken to.

"Aww, you not busy either? Funny, isn't it, right? Haven't you been fawning after Evans for... what, six years?"

"Sod off, Black," James replied loudly. Regulus leered at Lily before turning back to Sirius, having had enough fun.

"Mother sent this," he said indifferently, tossing a little velvet drawstring bag at his brother, who caught it and shook it. It jingled. Scowling, he stuffed it in the pocket of his robes. "Have a nice day!"

Rolling his eyes, Sirius glowered after Regulus until he'd walked away, then chucked a stone at him, which fell short by many feet. "Moron."


End file.
